You cannot solve your problem with conventional lab equipment?
From 8 to 9 March 2018, SYNERGI 2018 will bring together industrial researchers and scientists from large-scale facilities at the NEMO Science Museum in Amsterdam. These unique facilities offer a deep insight into materials of all types.

03.11.2017From: MLZ, Germany The hour of birth of the German neutron research

The hour of birth of the German neutron research:
The Atomic Egg, the first German research reactor, started operating 60 years ago in Garching. Thereby, irreplaceable insights into matter were made possible.

Neutrons are an exceptional resource for probing the atomic properties of materials, leading to advancements in materials science, biology, chemistry, and physics—and bringing us more effective drugs and medical treatments, 3D-printed tools and machinery, biofuels, and better batteries and energy storage technologies.

Worldwide, more than 30 million medical examinations are conducted annually with technetium-99m. A new film shows the status of the upgrading at the FRM II towards the production of its mother isotope molybdenum-99.

03.05.2017From: ESS, SwedenUK’s Daresbury Lab Gears Up for High-Beta Cavity Series Production

ESS interviews team members at Daresbury Lab in England. The STFC facility is responsible for series production and testing of the 84 high-beta cavities of the European Spallation Source’s superconducting Accelerator.

The European Spallation Source was the site of a roundtable discussion featuring King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, the Governor General of Canada, and the research ministers of the two nations. The focus was on collaboration between Canada’s and Sweden’s science, industry and research infrastructures.

IKON12. A record number of participants at the 12th meeting for In-Kind Contributions for Neutron Science at ESS demonstrated the expanding scale and complexity of the instrument projects as they move through preliminary engineering design.

MAX4ESSFUN. Mucus protects many of our body’s vital functions against dehydration. Understanding the structure and function of this biological material will give researchers more tools to prevent and treat common diseases like cystic fibrosis and asthma.

29.03.2017From: ESS, SwedenHow Do You Power the World’s Most Powerful Linac?

The Modulator. Carlos Martins and his ESS power converters team, with the help of Lund University researchers, have successfully brought a new high-voltage modulator design to series production. The cost savings and reduced footprint for these large machines mean a paradigm shift for linac power supply worldwide.

Delegates from the 15 European Spallation Source member and observer nations held a one-day strategy meeting in Lund on Thursday. Plans for finalising the construction and moving into operations, as well as principles for association of new members were up for discussion.

22.03.2017From: LLB, France A new research structure for the French neutrons scattering community

The first of January 2017, the “Fédération Française de Diffusion Neutronique” (French Federation of Neutron Scattering) has been created. It federates the Laboratoire Léon Brillouin (LLB) in Saclay and the CEA/INAC/MEM and Institut NEEL neutron groups in Grenoble.

The newly built time of flight spectrometre NEAT has welcomed its first users: Jie Ma from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and his colleague Zhilun Lu examined magnetic excitations in crystalline samples and enjoyed fast data rate and high flexibility of instrumental configurations. NEAT team is now looking forward to further new studies and user experiments!

Proposals for beam time at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) and Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) will be accepted via the web-based proposal system until NOON EASTERN TIME, Wednesday, April 12, 2017. This call is for experiments anticipated to run July through December 2017.

You are invited to apply for time on the neutron beam instruments at the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR). Due to facility maintenance about ¾ of the usual time given through proposals will be allocated in this proposal round. The deadline for all proposals is Tuesday, March 14, 2017.

ESS and J-PARC. Naohito Saito, Director of the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex, visited ESS and MAX IV on Monday to exchange knowledge and discuss their upcoming collaboration workshop with ESS and Swedish universities.

24.01.2017From: ESS, SwedenThe Accelerator Comes Together in Lund: A Talk With Roland Garoby

“It is really a treasure chest that is being built here. I’m convinced that the local hosts will be positively surprised by what will pop up out of this during its 40-year lifetime, provided it continues to be supported in the same spirit as it so far has been.”

There’s a new link on our History pages. A film shows the early construction at the ISIS facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, in the UK. The film was made in the summer of 1985, in preparation for the official opening in October 1985 of the facility by Margaret Thatcher, the then Prime Minister.

The Dutch Permanent Committee for Large-Scale Scientific Infrastructures announced today that ESS has been included in the National Roadmap. The strategic document brings the Netherlands one step closer to full membership in the European Spallation Source ERIC.

The Canadian Neutron Beam Centre (CNBC) plans to provide neutrons until the end of March 2018, and to provide assistance until March 2019 to complete data analysis and publish results. You are invited to propose challenging experiments, encourage young researchers to visit and learn everything they can from our experts.

Dr. Sultan Demirdis works in the field of neutron research at Forschungszentrum Jülich. In a video, she talks about how she became a neutron scientist and why she likes working at the Jülich Centre for Neutron Science.

The next call will be launched in January 2017 with a proposal submission deadline on February 20, 2017, midnight for all instruments, see list below. Those proposals will request for beamtime during the period May – October 2017.

Registration is now open for our MATRAC 2 Winter School ‘Application of Neutrons and Synchrotron Radiation in Materials Science with special focus on Fundamental Aspects of Materials’ to be held in Utting/Ammersee and Garching/Munich, Germany, February 27 to March 3, 2017.

07.11.2016From: ESS, SwedenProject Moves Forward as New ESS Director General Takes Over

John Womersley begun work as Director General of the European Spallation Source ERIC on November 1. On Friday, outgoing DG Jim Yeck delivered a message of heartfelt gratitude to ESS staff, management team, and governance.

In December 2015, Dr. Thorsten Lauer was still working as a postdoc and Thorsten Zechlau as a graduate student at the FRM II. Lauer and Zechlau could convince an investor with their knowledge and their enthusiasm for neutron optics to support the founding of a company on 1 January 2016. “We would not have dreamed of that a year ago”, the two founders say.

The Helsinki University Hospital (HUH) and Neutron Therapeutics have entered into an agreement whereby a novel accelerator-based neutron source for boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) will be installed at the HUH. BNCT is used to treat, for instance, locally advanced head and neck cancers.

The Canadian Neutron Beam Centre will provide neutrons until March 2018 and will to provide assistance until March 2019 to complete data analysis and publish results. You are invited to propose challenging experiments, encourage young researchers to visit and learn everything they can from the experts.

More than 90 energy researchers from around the world now came to the conference “Neutrons For Energy” in Bad Reichenhall to discuss current results and questions from various areas of energy research with neutrons.

Physics can also taste very sweet – this is one of the things that the pupils from grade 3 of the elementary school Garching Ost learned during their visit at the Research Neutron Source Heinz Maier-Leibnitz. They made an atom model from toothpicks and marsh mallows and tried their abilities as neutron scatterers at a neutron ball toss.

Since July 20, the FRM II again delivers neutrons. In the break, employees have finished many tasks: They exchanged the beam plug, which will guide neutrons towards the neutron guide hall east for new instruments.

CERIC-ERIC is launching its fifth call for proposals. There are interesting news in this call, new instruments added to the offer and an award for high quality publications and conference presentations.

New scientific questions demand ever better experimental equipment. In this interview, PSI researcher Oksana Zaharko reports on the challenges of setting up a new instrument for research with neutrons.

20.04.2016From: ESS, SwedenIKON10: 2016 Anticipated to be a Watershed Year for Instrument Projects

The semi-annual IKON meeting has become the forum for ESS and its in-kind partners to make a clear assessment of instrument construction progress. The focus of February’s meeting was less on the activities of individual instrument teams than the multidisciplinary collaboration as a whole.

The first component has been successfully installed in the Accelerator tunnel at the ESS Construction site this month. The occasion marks an important step toward ESS’ project goals and ultimate delivery to its European partners and the scientific community.

The next deadline for beam time request on French neutron scattering instruments will be April 1st. Within this call, you may ask beam time on the LLB instruments installed at the Orphée reactor in Saclay, and also on 4 French CRG at the ILL (D1B, D23, IN12 and IN22).

The Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, kindly invites you to submit applications for beam time at the IBR-2 high flux pulsed reactor. The deadline is April 15, 2016.

Forschungszentrum Jülich has begun to develop a concept for cost-efficient neutron sources which could replace mid-sized facilities. The new sources will operate without using reactor-typical chain reactions. Even smaller facilities on a laboratory scale can be set up using the same principle.

The ESS civil construction project broke ground nearly 18 months ago as one of the largest infrastructure projects in Europe. With the Accelerator tunnel nearing completion, and the complex foundation work for the Target Station well advanced, all eyes are focused on technical installations beginning this year.

The research reactor Munich (FRM), known as the “Atomic Egg”, came into operation on 31 October 1957. The research neutron source Heinz Maier Leibnitz (FRM II) reached its first criticality on 2 March, 2004 and user operation began only one year later on 29 April, 2005.

Stefan Janssen is Head of the User Office at Paul Scherrer Institute PSI. In an interview, he explains why the PSI’s large research facilities are popular with researchers coming from other institutions, how he handles the many applications and how he supports users who come here to conduct experiments.

12.01.2016From: ESS, SwedenPerugia’s Caterina Petrillo is Vice-Chair of European Spallation Source ERIC Council

The new vice-chair of the ESS Council is not new to neutrons. Her strong background in research, facility development, and within European-wide advisory bodies, places Caterina Petrillo at the centre of the neutron science community in Europe.

04.01.2016From: ESS, SwedenBritain’s STFC Signs On as Lead Partner for Two ESS Instruments

The UK’s Science & Technology Facilities Council signed an MoU with the European Spallation Source this month that establishes the world’s longest operating neutron spallation source as lead partner in building the ESS instruments FREIA and LoKI.

15.12.2015From: ILL, FranceAppointment of next ILL UK Associate Director and Head of Science

Prof. Mark Johnson has been appointed as the new UK Associate Director of the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, the world centre for neutron science, with effect from 1st October 2016. He will act as Head of the Science Division.

07.12.2015From: ESS, SwedenInnovation and Engineering Set ESS on Path to Sustainability

Research with neutrons has long delivered new and more environmentally responsible solutions for our planet. As part of its core framework, the European Spallation Source and its partners are working to realise sustainability goals for construction and operations.

07.12.2015From: HZB, GermanyThree days for exchange between Users of BESSY II and BER II and HZB-scientists

The Seventh Joint BER II and BESSY II User Meeting will take place at WISTA, Berlin-Adlershof on December 9th and 10th, the neutrons session are at Berlin-Wannsee on December 11th. The Verein Freundeskreis Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin e.V. will bestow the Innovation Award and the Ernst-Eckart-Koch Prize. Public highlights are a science slam on Wednesday, 18:30 and the public lecture by David Cahen on the power of science to bridge ideological differences. The public lecture and the science slam are open for everybody.

As one of the highest priority research infrastructure projects in Europe, ESS was visited today by the European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, Carlos Moedas. He was joined at the construction site by the Swedish Minister for Higher Education and Research, Helene Hellmark Knutsson.

30.11.2015From: ESS, SwedenFourth Quarter Committee and Council Meetings Lead ESS into Second Year of Construction

SAC and TAC recommendations advance the ESS along the critical path to completion, and the ERIC Council gets rolling with the election of Prof. Caterina Petrillo as vice chair and approval of the instrument suite.

16.11.2015From: Physics WorldPhysics World podcast: The rise of neutron scattering

New educational material! In a podcast Physics World news editor Michael Banks travels to ISIS to find out how scientists are using neutrons in their research and how the lab is looking to attract more users from industry.

The Director for Accelerators and Technology at CERN spent a recent visit to the European Spallation Source getting up to speed on the swiftly advancing project and reinforcing the high-level coordination between the directors of ‘the two leading accelerator projects in Europe’.

Instrument teams and in-kind partners from around Europe came together in Lund with developers of neutron technologies, science support systems, and data management and software for the ESS 9th In-Kind Collaboration Meeting for Neutron Scattering Systems.

19.10.2015From: ESS, SwedenAgneta Nestenborg is new Administration Director for the European Spallation Source

Agneta Nestenborg assumed leadership of the ESS Project Support & Administration Directorate on September 1. The transition marked the completion of former director Matti Tiirakari’s distinguished five-year secondment from CERN.

“Neutron scattering as an essential tool for science has addressed some of society’s grand challenges but its future is not assured,” said Prof Christiane Alba-Simionesco, Director of LLB and Chair of ENSA.

In April, tests were conducted at J-PARC that have preliminarily validated the physics behind the innovative ESS “flat” moderator. This design is expected to increase neutron brightness at ESS for some instruments by up to a factor of three.

08.06.2015From: NIST, USAUS neutron facility development in the last half-century: a cautionary tale

Rush describes the efforts over the past 50 years to develop neutron research facilities in the US, discusses the reasons for the current state of affairs, and makes suggestions to prevent similar consequences in the future.

The first fully functional Low-Level Radio Frequency control system for the ESS Accelerator has been installed and integrated into the EPICS control system at the FREIA Laboratory at Uppsala University.

IKON8 at ISIS. This meeting brought a capacity crowd to the UK venue where an important exchange of new ESS neutron technologies came face to face with the lessons learned at ISIS during its five-year upgrade of Target Station 2.

06.02.2015From: Government of CanadaGovernment of Canada Announces Extension of National Research Universal (NRU) Reactor

Greg Rickford, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, announced the Government of Canada’s decision to support the extension of the operations of the NRU reactor from October 31, 2016, until March 31, 2018.

South of the Maier-Leibnitz Laboratory a hall in wood construction is currently being built. From next year on, it will house the mock-up for the cooling systems of the ultracold neutron source at FRM II.

The source of the proton beam at PSI is a retro-style Cockcroft-Walton linear accelerator. It was the first acceleration stage for protons which are taken up to around 80% of the speed of light. Since 1994 it has held the world record as the highest performing beam.

19.05.2014From: CROSS-Tokai, JapanAnnouncement of the J-PARC-MLF General Use Program for 2014B

J-PARC Center and CROSS-Tokai are pleased to announce the call for General Use proposals for the neutron and muon beamlines at the Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility of J-PARC in the 2014B user beamtime period.

13.05.2014From: NMI3What if one could use a single platform to apply for neutron experiments in any European facility?

To submit a proposal for neutron scattering experiments can be a long procedure. Thanks to NMI3 support, a group is working on an Integrated User Access to make this procedure easier to both users and facilities.

07.05.2014From: MLZ, GermanyWinfried Petry elected vice president of the German Atomic Forum

Today, the general assembly of the German Atomic Forum DAtF (Deutsches Atomforum e.V.) has confirmed unanimously the election of the DAtF Presidential Council of Prof. Dr. Winfried Petry for Vice President.

We have now a map with all the neutron sources worldwide. You can browse it to learn about each one and then have a look at dedicated webpages with information about each research centre and neutron association worldwide.

NMI3 supports a joint initiative by the University of Copenhagen, the Technical University of Denmark, the Technical University of Munich, and the Institut Laue-Langevin to develop an e-learning platform on neutron scattering.

Organized by researchers around Europe, the ESS Science Symposia play an important part in identifying the scientific potential of ESS and the instruments and facilities required to realize that potential.

For the measurement of the electric dipole moment of the neutron at FRM II, the research group of Prof Peter Fierlinger from the Excellence Cluster Universe at TUM and the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt Berlin are provided with 3.45 million euros.

21.02.2013From: FRM II, GermanyMLZ: New center for neutron research in Germany

The successful collaboration between the Technical University of Munich, the Jülich Research Centre and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht received a new name: Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ). The inaugural ceremony was held in Garching, Germany.

In 2011 it has been decided that a new nuclear reactor will be constructed in Argentina. It will become the 10th nuclear reactor in the country and the Atomic Energy National Commission (Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica, CNEA), which is the main responsible for the project, plans that this OPAL-like reactor will start operating by 2018 in a location to be defined.

In Berlin, more than 300 scientists have gathered to define the science of the future European Spallation Source. In total, ideas from more than 1000 scientists have been fed into the project. ESS will be one of Europe’s largest science facilities. It will be the world’s brightest facility for advanced materials research and life science with neutrons.